Good deeds, good health? – Do prosocial behaviours impact cardiometabolic and immune biomarkers?

Volunteering is one of the most widely reported prosocial behaviours, with prior research finding links between volunteering and more favourable health outcomes. However, the underlying biological mechanisms remain poorly understood, and very few large-scale representative studies have assessed the role of volunteering on biomarkers. Therefore, this study investigated whether volunteering was associated with cardiometabolic and immune biological profiles using Understanding Society.
Data were drawn from Wave 2 and multivariable linear regressions were used to test the associations between volunteering status and volunteering frequency on five biomarkers; total cholesterol, triglycerides, glycated haemoglobin (HbA1c), C-reactive protein (CRP), and fibrinogen. Covariate models were built iteratively and included an unadjusted model, a demographics-adjusted model, and a fully adjusted model additionally controlling for socioeconomic status and health. Biomarkers were log-transformed to address non-normal distributions.
In fully adjusted models, individuals who reported volunteering had lower CRP and fibrinogen than those who did not volunteer. When volunteering frequency was examined, frequent volunteering (reference: not volunteering) was also associated with lower inflammatory biomarkers. However infrequent volunteering showed no associations. There were no associations with total cholesterol, triglycerides, and HbA1c after full covariate adjustment.
These findings suggest that volunteering as a prosocial behaviour may be associated with lower systemic inflammation, even after accounting for key confounders. These results also suggest that volunteering more frequently may be the most important for better inflammatory profiles. Together, this strengthens the case for volunteering as a public health approach and highlights the need for longitudinal research to establish causal pathways